Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
image/svg+xml art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos Open Access logo, converted into svg, designed by PLoS. This version with transparent background. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Access_logo_PLoS_white.svg art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos http://www.plos.org/ ZENODOarrow_drop_down
image/svg+xml art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos Open Access logo, converted into svg, designed by PLoS. This version with transparent background. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Access_logo_PLoS_white.svg art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos http://www.plos.org/
ZENODO
Preprint . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: ZENODO
ZENODO
Preprint . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Preprint . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
versions View all 2 versions
addClaim

Menopause and Female Power: From Natural Selection to Patriarchal Contempt

Authors: Rosell Saldaña, Júlia;

Menopause and Female Power: From Natural Selection to Patriarchal Contempt

Abstract

Menopause is a rare phenomenon among mammals, found only in humans, orcas, and a few other social species. According to classical Darwinian logic, the persistence of post-reproductive individuals seems like an evolutionary mistake: why keep a body alive if it no longer transmits genes? Yet the existence of menopause shows the opposite. The grandmother hypothesis (Hawkes, 1998) and recent studies on cetaceans (Foster et al., 2012; Brent et al., 2015) demonstrate that post-reproductive females provide a crucial adaptive value, increasing the survival of descendants through ecological memory, leadership, and cultural transmission. This article explores the biological, anthropological, and philosophical dimensions of this phenomenon. Zoological evidence is compared with the historical role of elder women in hunter-gatherer societies, where they acted as keepers of knowledge and ritual authority (Gimbutas, Mead). Later, it is shown how patriarchy has transformed this adaptive advantage into stigma, reducing women to their reproductive value and pathologizing menopause. Through feminist critique (De Beauvoir, Haraway, Federici), the article denounces patriarchal biologicism, which presents itself as natural but is in fact a cultural construction—unnatural and contrary to evolutionary evidence. The final thesis is that menopause does not represent a biological failure but a strategy for collective survival. By contrast, the true biological anomaly is patriarchy, which has silenced and belittled one of the most singular traits of our species.

Keywords

Cetaceans, Feminist anthropology, Patriarchy, Culture, Biologicism, Humans, Evolutionary biology, Adaptarion, Menopause, Grandmother hypothesis, Feminism

  • BIP!
    Impact byBIP!
    selected citations
    These citations are derived from selected sources.
    This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    0
    popularity
    This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
    influence
    This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    Average
    impulse
    This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
Green
Related to Research communities